


Shiny and New

by DoreyG



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Genre: Awkward Romance, Episode Tag: S02E16 Shadowplay, F/M, First Kiss, Implied Sexual Content, Intimacy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-22
Updated: 2017-11-22
Packaged: 2019-02-05 12:30:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,602
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12794610
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoreyG/pseuds/DoreyG
Summary: "Intimacy," Dax said, quite simply.





	Shiny and New

"Do you ever miss it?" Dax asked, out of nowhere when they were about an hour away from passing through the wormhole again. She'd been largely silent ever since they'd left. He'd assumed that she'd finally, _finally_ , ran out of things to talk about.

He'd obviously assumed wrong.

"You'll have to be more specific," he sighed, glancing in her direction only briefly. He wasn't really annoyed, not _deeply_ in the way he managed to be at least twice a day back on the station, but it was still easier to summon grumpy brusqueness than anything close to the awkward hinterland of polite friendliness, "miss what? The station? Quark's endless, and somewhat hapless, attempts to dive into a life of crime? The supposed beauty of a Bajoran sunset?" 

"Intimacy," Dax said, quite simply.

His hands skittered across the control pad, his entire body jerked as if he'd just been administered a forceful electric shock. The runabout beeped, almost _reproachfully_ if he'd been prone to such flights of fancy, but he paid it no mind in favour of calming himself back into an entirely solid shape.

"...Odo?"

"I'm alright," he said, a touch tersely. Breathed in a few more times, before turning to face her fully, "it was just a slightly unexpected question, especially on a mission of this nature."

"I'm sorry." Dax, at least, looked as if she honestly meant it. She frowned at him apologetically, but without flinching or dismissal - as if he was a creature worthy of her respect, worthy of her regrets, "we don't have to talk about it, if you don't wish to."

"I..." He hesitated for a second, decided to return her respect after only a second of wary misgivings, "I don't mind, not really. I'm just not quite sure how to answer."

Dax considered, and then smiled. She had, he noted almost absently, what would be considered an extremely pretty smile by most humanoids, "the truth would, maybe, be a good place to start."

"How amusing," he said flatly, but nodded slowly as he did so. Dax was safe. He could trust her with the truth, he was sure of that in a way that he was sure of very few things, "it's impossible to miss what you've never had, is it not?"

"Never?" Dax looked troubled now, a faint wrinkle between her brows, "I mean, I know you said that you'd had no special friends. But outside of that..."

"When have I had the opportunity?" He said, perhaps a touch snappishly. There was no need to be defensive, he knew that, but it still rankled in a way that he couldn't quite shake, "I've been busy on this station from the day I've arrived, first with the Cardassians and then with the Federation. I can't keep an eye on Quark and woo any likely passerby, it just isn't possible."

"Quark does require a firm hand," Dax agreed quietly, her troubled expression faded to thoughtfulness.

"And, besides, I've never met anybody who was actually interested in _me_ ," he continued, still stung, "If anybody had ever made an approach, then perhaps I would've been responsive. But as it is, dismissing curious gawkers, nobody has ever shown the slightest inclination towards my company and nor do I think they ever-"

"I think you're wrong," Dax interrupted him, but kindly. Her eyes were soft on his face, as she reached out a hand to gently brush over his, "and, besides, there are other things to consider. Have you ever wanted any of them?"

He hesitated for a long second. Allowed his eyes, almost involuntarily, to trail over her form from head to toe "...Some of them, perhaps. One or two."

There was an amused light in her eyes now. But also something deeper, something warmer and softer and infinitely more complex, "And you do miss the absence of it?"

"As I said, it's impossible-"

"Not the memory of it," Dax said, almost impatiently, "but... I'm not entirely sure how to explain it. Do you ever long for something warm? For some sort of connection, something deeper than a discussion over a case or the brush of a hand in passing?"

He stared at her for a long moment, feeling slightly stunned at how closely she'd hit the nail on the head "...Perhaps."

"Perhaps?"

"I'm not really sure what else you want from me," He grumbled, perhaps a touch testily to hide the unsettled shifting going on deep in his stomach, "do you want me to fall to my knees, proclaim loudly to the Gamma Quadrant that I long for something near impossible to have? Rend my clothes, tear at my hair? Weep long into the night?"

"Nothing so dramatic, I'm sure." Dax smiled at him again, finally let her hand slip away. It was only when she moved it, that he realized how cold he'd been without it, "just... If you're comfortable with it, if you _want_ , come to my quarters tonight."

"Your quarters?" He asked, almost dumbly. 

"At twenty-hundred hours, after we've both made our reports and rested a little." She glanced away from him for a second, glanced back under her eyelashes. He realized, quite suddenly, that he was struck by the look on her face, "you know, if you're comfortable with it."

He stared at her for a long, silent second. Almost uncomprehending, almost unwilling to comprehend.

"...I might be."

Almost.

 

\--

 

When Dax answered her door that night, she was wearing something pink and gauzy. It wasn't hugely revealing, unless one counted shadows and imagination, but it was still... Different. Another shift, in a day of seismic shifts.

"Hello, Odo," she said, leaning against the doorframe with a smile that seemed - perhaps, if he extrapolated - a touch nervous.

"I," he said, and hesitated for a long second as he ran through the roughly a billion things that he could follow that relatively neutral statement up with, "must admit that I have no idea what I'm doing in this situation."

Dax stared at him for a frozen moment, and then actually _laughed_ \- a bright sound, flashing out of the room and down the corridor like light, "do you want to come in, perhaps?"

Helpless in the face of such brightness, he stepped over the threshold.

Somehow it was easier, once the door was shut behind them and they were definitively alone together. He leant into her scent for a moment, and then glanced around her quarters out of habit. It was all fairly neat, with only a few touches of personality to distinguish it from anywhere else on the station. There was a colourful throw over the sofa, one or two pictures hung up on the wall. A pot of what he assumed were replicated flowers stood on the table, a bright flash of pink against the grey.

He gestured to them, grasping at the first opportunity to move forward that he saw, "do you wish me to state that the greenery isn't quite as pretty as you?"

She laughed again, though this time it was more of a choked-off snort, and covered her mouth briefly with her hand, "please, don't. You'll start reminding me of Julian. And, as deeply nice and doubtlessly charming as he is..."

"You aren't attracted to him," he finished for her, and felt his skin ripple in that odd way that meant he'd be blushing if he'd bothered to mimic the human ability for it, "I mean, that is if I'm not presuming?"

"We're alone together in my quarters, I'm wearing _this_ , and you're asking me that?" Dax asked, with a smirk that sent another ripple of heat through him, "no, Odo, you're not presuming. I didn't invite you here out of a misplaced sense of charity, or even a sense of curiosity. I am attracted to you."

"Have I ever told you how much I admire your bluntness?" He said, touched despite himself, "other humanoids dance around the issue, say a million things to cover the one thing they actually mean, but you..."

She waited him out, patient as ever.

"I'm still not quite sure what I'm doing," he admitted quietly, turning back to find her so much closer than she'd been just a few minutes ago.

"If it helps, I don't think anybody quite knows what they're doing when it comes to things like this," she said, and he shuddered pleasurably at the unexpected feeling of her breath across his face, "you could start by kissing me?"

He hesitated for a second, considered for another. Eventually brought his hand up, and lightly pressed it to the warm line of her jaw. 

When he finally brought their lips together it felt different from what he'd expected. He'd expected something unpleasant, undignified, damp and clingy and ugly in the way that humanoids so often seemed to revel in. Instead... It was a little wet, yes, but acceptably so. Mostly it was warm, and soft, and easy in a way that slowly drew the tension from his formed muscles. Kissing Dax didn't feel like a chore, or an unpleasant duty, or something that he had to tolerate for the sake of curiosity. It felt like coming home.

"I think," he said, perhaps a touch unsteadily, when they finally parted, "that I should start calling you Jadzia."

Dax- _Jadzia_ gave a proper laugh at that, a louder and more unrestrained one, and reached out to grab his hand. Tugged him unresisting towards the sofa, as she trained a bright smile back at him, "only if you want."

And suddenly, quite unexpectedly yet again, he found that _want_ was at the very forefront of his mind.


End file.
